Concern's work in DR Congo is underway despite heavy rains
Thursday, 14 December 2006
DR Congo has been ravaged by bloody conflicts during the civil war and militia uprisings over the last five years. Eastern DR Congo was the worst affected by the war, and many people suffered immensely and were forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in nearby forests for nearly two years.
Joseph Kabila was declared outright winner of the first fully democratic presidential elections in over 40 years. As the interim president, Kabila, managed to steer the country through the end of the conflict and many see him as the man to bring peace to DR Congo.
Concern's Response
Concern is providing emergency assistance those returning to their villages in Katanga Region, Eastern DR Congo. 21 villages have been targeted.
The major constraint to working in this area continues to be the severe weather conditions which have had a major impact on transport and access.
As a result of the conflict roads and bridges have been destroyed. With increasing rains the roads are turning into rivers and trucks get stuck every other day.
Fortunately with some of the bridges repaired, the turnover time of transport has reduced.
Seeds & Tools
In Kasongo, another province where Concern work, seeds and tools distributions have been a priority, to get as many done as possible for the end of the planting season, to start harvesting from February on.
Concern staff has followed up initial seed distributions, first held in September, overseeing the agricultural techniques used.
The process of weeding, usually undertaken two weeks after sowing to prevent nutrients in the soil being used by up weeds is a good indicator.
In Pictures: Distributions click here
Other Activities
Two studies are currently underway; one to establish household income and level of access to local markets and the other to evaluate the impact of the rehabilitation of bridges and sections of road in 10 villages.
Also in Kasongo, Concern operates a Community Therapeutic Care (CTC) programme, where 2,227 people participated in health education sessions conducted at distribution centres in November.
Cooking demonstrations are ongoing in four centres to explore different food combinations, addressing malnutrition.
Heavy rains prevented people from coming to nutrition centres.
Cases of diarrhoea infections have been reported and the most vulnerable are malnourished children, whose immune system has been weakened.
The measles epidemic continues and adds to complications for malnourished children; increasing the risk of death and the team has opted to systematically vaccinate all beneficiaries in the program who have not been vaccinated at birth to try to minimise complications from measles.
The number of those registered in Outpatient and Supplementary Feeding Centres has increased, displaying more moderate malnutrition in the community than normal.
The higher numbers show active recruitment from the Outreach workers reaching remote communities, despite the rains.
